The Calm Before the Storm
by flameology
Summary: Gaara, Kankurou, and Temari are back in Konaha when the village is forced to prepare its best for a run in with Itachi and the Akatsuki when an object is uncovered that could be even more powerful than the ninetails. New teams, some of the same pairings.
1. Familiar Faces

The Calm Before the Storm 

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or locations in this fic………if I did I can assure you I would definitely not be here writing about it.

Well hey there everyone, this is my second fanfic. The first one kinda flopped so um………never read it.……..ever. Well unless you want to develop serious mental issues. Um this chapter is basically to fill in all the background information on the story. The later chapters to come will be the actual thing

" " – someone is talking

' ' –someone is thinking

Ame -means "rain"

. Soooo without and more ado here it goes!

Familiar Faces: 

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Oh, come on!" The groggy girl groans as she opens one eye to peer at the luminescent clock on her bedside table, 5:30 A.M. She can hear the other companions of her room slowly retreat from their warm bed confines and stretch onto the cold wooden floor. After a few minutes of shuffling, she hears someone addressing her.

"Ame, come on! You're the only one attempting not to get up!"

'Too true.' Ame slowly opens the other eye to squint across the dark room at her fellow pink hair konoichi. 'She's too cheerful for this early in the morning.'

"Yes, I'm talking to you!" Sakura said in reply to seeing Ame's sight fixed in her direction. "Don't think I'm going to let you sleep more than I got to. Besides we have to go meet our new teams and get our assignments."

'That's right,' Ame remembers. She steals a quick glance at the newest member of their room, Temari. 'Since the sand ninjas arrived everyone would be regrouped to _further establish foreign ties_ or, so the lady hokage had said. She gives another more annoyed look at Temari. They were the reason why she was already in such a foul mood this morning.

Flashback

"But Tsunade sama!" Ame jumped from the seated position she had taken when first called to the office. "I've done _welcome_ two nights in a row now, can't anyone else do it?"

_Welcome_ involved waiting for visiting ninjas to arrive in Konoha, usually late in the evening, and check the papers filled out by the foreigners for boarder traveling. Had it just been one contract needing to be check Ame would not have been so angry, but the fact of the matter was that each ninja crossing a boarder had around thirty pages of registration required for record books. It was also not uncommon for people to _forget_ to fill out their paperwork and leave all responsibility with the present welcomer. In Shikamaru's words, Ame had to agree. It was very troublesome.

Tsunade gave a sympathetic look, "everyone else has a mission that won't let them return to Konoha until well after the allies are due to arrive tonight. Besides, your partner is in the hospital and I can't give you any missions until he's be………"

"He has a stomach ache!" Ame interrupted. "So unless the medicine they are giving him is more food, he should be fine! It's been three days!"

It was bad enough she had been partnered with Chougi last month, but now he was putting on an act to stay out of work. 'A bad habit picked up from an old teammate.'

"I'm sorry Ame, but you are on _welcome_ tonight and I don't want anymore arguments. Understood?" She was trying hard to suppress a grin. If there was one thing she loved most about the youth of the village it would be their spirit. If there had honestly been any other one-man missions, she would have gladly given it to her, but anything else was just too dangerous for an individual person.

"I understand Tsunade sama." She turned to leave, trying to exit with as much dignity as she could muster. She opened the door and closed it behind her, heaving a heavy sigh as it shut. 'Damn it Chougi! When you get out of that hospital, I'll give you a legitimate reason to go back.' She shoved her hands in her pockets and proceeded down into Konoha's busy morning streets. The day complimented her mood, dark clouds obscured the sun's light and an annoying drizzle had started. She sighed again.

When she had become a Jounin two years ago, she had expected her life to get considerably more exciting with challenging missions everyday and life or death situations around every corner. Sadly though, life had stayed about the same as when she'd left the ninja academy.

The smell of breakfast being cooked from inside the houses and restaurants on either side of the street reminded her of how she had forgotten to eat before coming to the Hokage's office that morning. She turned a corner and walked into the closest building. Warm fragrances greeted her as she proceeded to the interior of the building scanning the room for an empty seat.

"Ame! Look, over here!"

Her eyes fell upon Sakura and Hinata motioning for her to join them. She walked over to them, amazed she had missed Sakura's hair when she first walked in since her bright bubble gum pink hair was hard to miss in a crowd.

"Good morning Ame-san," Hinata smiled when Ame finally got settled in a seat.

"Morning Hinata, Sakura," she could see her morning become slightly better, getting to eat with two of her old teammates and close friends though both were a year older.

Ame had been a special case ninja when graduating from the academy since she was the only one from her class to achieve that level. The year following the Chuunin exam, Ame had taken the regular graduating test and passed, but strangely enough, she had been the only one. Her position had caused a bit of a problem with putting her on a team. So the decision was made to allow her to become a member of the already existing teams and switch off between them. Thus she was on pretty good terms with most of the original nine rookies. She had even gotten to go on a short-term assignment with Gai's team. In this fashion, she continued to do missions until she achieved the Chuunin level at twelve. She was seventeen now.

"Where are you two off to today?" Ame cursed them silently for getting each other as partners.

"Nothing too difficult, just border patrol," Hinata's voice was still as quiet as ever.

"Yeah, it's boring, but at least it's not as bad as welcome!" Sakura laughed while beginning to eat the food brought to them. With her head down she missed Ame's dismal look, but Hinata didn't.

"Oh, you're not on welcome again tonight are you?" Hinata saw her look of conformation. "I'm sorry………"

Sakura raised her head. "Not again! That'll be three nights this week."

All old news to Ame, but it felt nice to know that someone other than herself thought it extremely unfair.

There was silence in the group after that outbreak broken only by the light murmur of conversations taking place at other tables.

"So, Shino-kin and Sasuke-kun returned from their mission last night." Hinata's attempt to change the subject was successful and the three spent the rest of breakfast discussing the details.

Sasuke was one of the people that she didn't know as well. The other was Naruto. When she was first placed on the teams, they were off training with their sannin counterparts. It was only after three years of getting used to everyone that Naruto had returned, gone out on another mission, and returned with Sasuke. The details of what had happened had never been discussed with her, though it really was none of her business all the same.

Sakura suddenly stared at the clock. "Oh shit! We should have been at our first check point half an hour ago!" She quickly jumps from her seat heading for the door, Hinata closely following behind. "Bye Ame!" They call from over their shoulders.

Ame sighed, 'well, that was fun while it lasted.' She sunk farther into her chair. A cheery waitress approaches the table with her palm outstretched. Ame pulled a moneybag from one of her pockets and pays the woman the amount due for her order, but as she stands to leave the woman stands in her way.

"Excuse me, but this isn't enough." The waitress stretches her hand out again.

"What are you talking about? Of course that's………" Ame glances back at her table to see that her comrades had left no money to pay for their meals. Quite perturbed, she turned back. "How much do I owe you?"

Walking out of the building with considerably less money than when entering, Ame trudged through the streets sticking her hands back in her pockets. 'Some day this is turning out to be,' she cast her head down to look at the ground as she continued walking, slightly dragging her feet as she went. Deciding she needed to vent off some anger that she'd built up since waking up that morning, she started heading for the training grounds.

She was suddenly stopped when a black cat streaked across her path almost tripping her in the process and causing her to rebalance after jumping to the side, but not before her jump knocked into a man carrying a mirror who promptly dropped it causing a little girl to lunge back in alarm going under and hitting a ladder as she went which resulted in it falling onto a table placed outside for dining customers to sit at, spilling all the salt and pepper.

Now,

Ame wasn't much for superstition, but had she not just involuntarily caused that strange stroke of bad luck? The idea of spending the afternoon around others and her throwing sharp pointy objects at targets suddenly did not sound quite as appealing. She quickly retreated from the scene of the _accident_ and headed home. She turned on her street and was surprised to see the dormitories unscathed, she had half expected it to be burning down or blown up.

'Everyone should be out on his or her assignments by now,' Ame thought as she proceeded indoors. 'Maybe I can sleep the day by.' She continued until she reached the room she shared with the four Konoha girls. A row of three beds was mirrored on both sides of the room. Sakura, Hinata, and Ten Ten shared one row, while Ino and Ame had the other. The extra bed stayed for any female guest visiting the village. Ame walked over to her bed where all inclinations of cleanliness ended and the hurricane began. She and Ino had no guilt about leaving clothes, books, and such on the floor. Precisely the reason they had been put on the same side, opposite all the clean freaks. Quite frankly, she had something against total cleanliness. One glance at the opposite side of the room was enough to send shivers down her spine. It was just too………clean.

Ame flopped down on her unmade bed and stared at the ceiling a moment before closing her eyes. She sighed deeply, slowly falling into a state of slumber. That's when she heard it. The faint dripping noise coming from the adjacent bathroom, one of those sounds that you can't hear when moving around, yet as soon as it gets quiet, turns into a constant hammering. She threw the blanket over her head serving to muffle the sound. She was just settling down again when the cracking humming of a motor jolted her out of relaxation. 'Someone just _had_ to mow their lawn now, didn't they?' She grabbed a pillow and stuffed it over her ears, just waiting for the next interruption to occur. Sure enough within seconds, Ino's alarm clock came out of snooze.

With sleep far from her grasp, she jumped out of bed and grabbed the offending object, flinging it to the opposite side of the room. Destroying the perfect cleanliness as well as the alarm.

"SCREW THIS!"

Later

The clock had moved slowly that day, and when the time finally came for Ame to leave for Welcome, she could almost feel herself relieved to remove herself from the boring dullness that was her house. She reached the academy building, which was being used for multiple purposes these days, at fifteen minutes past eleven. The information on the new arrivals would be on Iruka sensei's desk. Sure enough they were there. There were three expected tonight. Each of them had their own card and on those cards where such information like name, blood type, ninja level, things like that.

Name: Temari

Name: Kankurou

Name: Gaara

She inhaled sharply. She had heard of these three before, but had missed out on actually coming in contact with any of them. Known for being extremely strong and not the easiest people to get along with, Ame suddenly felt like this was a little more than a one-man job. She laid out their pictures next. 'My, what a happy bunch.' The three faces scowled up at her with identical frowns.

Three hours later, Ame was still waiting. Staring at the clock in blatant outrage.

'If they're not here in thirty minutes, I'm leaving.' She made a mental note to herself. 'This is bull shit!' She begins searching through Iruka's drawers to find something to occupy the time. Her hand grasps a toy at the bottom of the drawer and pulls out a magic eight ball, which he must have confiscated during one of his classes.

"Why not," she mutters to herself shaking the black sphere and thinking of a question. She motions to the people staring out of the pictures, "will these people be here soon?" She stops shaking and looks at the answer: _ask again later_.

Ame gives the orb a two second break, and then furiously shakes the ball again. "Will they be here soon?" she asks a little for forcefully. _Ask again later_, it answers again.

"Ah hell, who needs you?" She aims the ball toward an empty trashcan by the door and shoots. The ball crashes into the can knocking it over and creating a deafening clang. Ame's heart jumps as she hears footsteps outside the door, but her spirit soon drops as Genma opens the door. "Oh, it's just you." She sinks back in her seat.

"Thanks for the warm welcome," he smirks slightly at his pun. "I come over here to check on you 'cause Tsunade-sama said you'd be alone here tonight and _that's_ the greeting I get?" He turns to leave.

"No, no wait. Sorry. I didn't mean it like that." Brother or not, any company was better than none at all.

"You don't look too good kiddo," he points to the dark circles forming around her eyes as he settles himself, sitting on the edge of the desk.

"Yeah, well, can't say I've been sleeping much lately." Ame decided to let the _kiddo_ comment slide.

"It's good training for when you join ANBU, right?" he flashed her a good-natured grin. "Which reminds me, why haven't you applied yet?"

"I'm getting' around to it………I just thought, you know, I should wait a little while longer."

"Okay," he gives some time for though, "here's what I'll do for you," Genma steps away from the desk and leans his hands on it instead. "I'll request that you get a few days off for a little R&R, if you promise you'll apply soon."

'What's all the rush about? But rest sounds too good to pass up in my condition.' "Fine," she said out loud.

"Great, well, I'm suppose to meet some others for a little get together." He smirked. His _get togethers_ usually included a massive amount of drinking and the usual random female companion at the end of the night.

But that wasn't the thing Ame caught on to. "Wait, you said others are back from their missions already?"

"Yeah, most everyone dispatched today have already returned." With a slight chuckle and a nonchalant wave from over his shoulder he left with a parting, "g'night."

She watched him leave looking as smug as he could. 'The nerve of him!' One of the things that had made her feel better about carrying out welcome tonight was that she was sure that at least she would be able to finished before anyone else could finish their missions. Now the sand were three hours late and if you counted Genma's visit, six minutes.

Unable to sit still any longer, Ame stood from behind the desk to retrieve the eight ball. It had rolled out of the trashcan, over to the door where it stayed motionless.

'Stupid………can't even answer a simple question.' She reaches down to pick it up. "No………can't even tell me if the people will be coming soo………"

crash

darkness

"Hey………doesn't she look"

"Shhhh!"

"………is she dead?"

"Of course not, she's breathing isn't she?"

'Who were these people?' Ame didn't recognize their voices. She slowly opened one eyelid, then the other. It was like the pictures had suddenly let loose their scowling inhabitants. She felt the eight ball still grasped in her hand: _my sources say yes_ it reads.

'Ouch,' her head throbbed angrily. She felt where the door had hit her, 'yep definite bruise forming'. Looking back up at the three, she saw them all staring back at her as if she had sprouted an extra limb.

"Well don't everyone rush to help me up." She rose to her feet and walked back to the desk muttering under her breath.

"Acting like _I_ was the late one………ram _their_ heads into a door………_my sources say yes_………stupid sources." She motioned for the three to step further into the room, seeing as they were still in the doorway.

The two older sand took a small step forward, stealing a tentative glance at the youngest, while he stood his ground, piercing blue eyes fixed mercilessly at Ame. 'Wow, kind _and_ cooperative, what more could one ask for?' She sunk back into her chair. "Right," she said skipping her usual cheery intro, "you three have been here before, but never for such an elongated time like now. You will be staying in dormitories with everyone else, no special apartment to yourselves this time. At six tomorrow, you are to meet with everyone else, here, to receive new teammates." Now the part she was dreading. "You guys have your filled-out paperwork, right?"

Temari took a thick packet of papers from her pack and held them out.

'Is she really expecting me to get up and get them?" Ame looked bemused, apparently so because Temari did not budge. Ame again rose from her seat and closed the distance between them. She grasped the papers and brought them to her side without looking at them. She instead stared at the three again. The two closest to her had paled considerably since entering the room and the third………well, he was already pale to begin with. They stood there staring, unblinkingly.

"You guys okay?" she wondered out loud. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."

"Tired, we're just tired." Temari nudged her brother who finally blinked.

"Right, well," she tried to muster up some amount of enthusiasm. "As soon as I file you papers, you'll be registered in Konoha." 'And I can finally sleep.'

With a slight nod, Kankurou and Temari turned to leave.

"Name?"

"………Excuse me?" Ame blinked over to Gaara.

"What's your name?" He looked like the type who didn't like to have to repeat himself.

"Oh, right. Ame."

Did she imagine it, or did all of them visibly twitch upon hearing her name? She had never had someone not like her name before. 'Strange………'

"Well, if you guys are tired, you can go."

An awkward silence had filled the room, but was soon broken when again Temari and Kankurou attempted to leave, this time, accompanied by Gaara.

As the door shut behind them Ame could barely make out Kankurou's voice, "did _you_ know we were suppose to fill those out?"

Ame's heart froze. She slowly brought the papers to her face. Blank. Every last damn page was blank. Fighting back a cry of despair, she slammed the papers on the desk and began to search for a pen.

Finally finished, she dropped her pen with difficulty, her left hand seemed permanently stuck in that position. She got up from her chair and slowly shuffled out of the room. Outside, the early morning air felt wonderful on her face as she numbly jumped from rooftop to rooftop.

She looked at the sky. Signs of morning had already started to show, pink and orange in the distant horizon. Having trouble keeping her eyes open, she glares up at the fading moon, hoping to concentrate on something other than her own fatigue. A couple of rooftops along though, she realized she was losing her battle as she felt her eyelids grow heavy. As her eyes began to close, her body went into auto-mode. She had taken this route home so many times, her feet knew the paces by heart.

Realizing she was reaching her destination, she jerked her eyes open. Not quickly enough, she tried to stop herself from colliding with someone on the roof of the boys' dormitories. A wall of sand manifested itself in the air in front of her. Moments from impact she threw her hands out in front of her to soften the blow on the majority of her body. She crashed into the wall and felt it propel her backwards. Back first, Ame began falling to the distant ground below.

'Okay, falling………it's okay………just stay calm now.'

She concentrated all of her thoughts toward her chakra, but was finding it difficult to use her powers and save herself since she couldn't clear her mind. Levitating objects took much more concentration than she could muster in her fatigued state. All she could manage was to slightly slow her falls momentum, and hope for the best. Seconds from impact, she felt a pair of strong arms catch her, the owner of which she noticed, also had the stale stench of alcohol on them. Weary of being assaulted by a drunkard, she timidly glances up. As she looks, a familiar face greets her gaze.

"Wha'd'ya know, it's rainin' Ame." He gave her a lopsided smile, his usual sebon replaced by a regular stirring stick.

"Genma!" Ame was relieved at his appearance. "What're you doing here?"

"When I heard that my lil' sis still hadn't gotten safely home, I first checked the academy building, then came straight here. And good thing I did by the look of things." He flashed her another of those infectious grins.

Ame couldn't help but smile back. Around her brother, you just couldn't help feeling happy.

He set her down, but found that she was having trouble standing. "Whoa," he said, steadying her again. "I'll have whatever you had." He chuckled to himself. "You sure you weren't drinkin' with us tonight?"

"Let's just say, I am very much looking forward to that R&R you promised you'd get for me." She allowed him to guide her to the door leading to the dormitories that she had conveniently almost fallen right in front of.

"Oh, about that." He looked down on her, smiling sheepishly. "It seem that starting tomorrow you're gonna have your hands full and I couldn't really get you out of it………sorry."

She should have seen it coming, what with the new team arriving and all, but that didn't stop the lump from dropping in her stomach.

"Yeah, well, them's the breaks kid." He slapped her back, probably a little harder than necessary in his drunken condition. "I'm not too sure what time it is now, but you really should go try to catch a couple winks before tomorrow."

She nodded, "night Genma."

"Night Ame," he turned to leave, but remembered something. "Oh, hey," he tried to voice his thoughts in the best way, "don't be………_you_ tomorrow."

"And what is _that_ suppose to mean?" Ame started smiling, thinking this was just another one of her older brothers many jokes.

"No, really," his face taking an uncharacteristic form, "be careful tomorrow." He left without another word, leaving Ame with a serious feeling of foreboding.

Miraculously, a few minutes later she hobbled to her side of the room and flopped face first on her bed, not bothering to change clothes. She pulled the covers up to her neck, eyes finally getting to close, head resting on her pillow when………

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

End of Flashback

Wow, I do believe that was the longest flashback I have ever written. To think all those pages only took place in the span of about five seconds in Ame's mind. Well anyway, what do you think of Ame? This chapter was basically to introduce you to her, so you can kinda get a feel for what she's like. Next chapter! We get to see the new teams and they'll find out what their assignment is. Review please!


	2. Teaming Up

Since I don't want to keep having to write a disclaimer for every chapter, the one on the first chapter pertains to all chapters following it.

And on we go!

Chapter 2: Teaming Up

Having recalled last night's events, Ame felt even worse. "This sucks", she mumbled to herself.

"What was that?" Ino asked cheerfully. She had gotten a good nights sleep. "By the way, do you know what happened to my alarm?"

"Uh………no, can't say I do." Ame said quickly feeling a tad bit guilty for her burst of rage. She thought it best to change the subject. "Who do you think you'll be partnered with this time?"

"Dunno," she replied. "In the beginning we were paired according to scores at the academy. Recently though, I think we're just being paired at random." She shrugged.

Yep, the past two pairings had certainly been random: Kiba and now Chouji.

"Hey everyone! Let's go!" Ten Ten's enthusiasm clearly not rubbing off on everyone else.

Ame slowly shifted back out of bed still fully dress since she hadn't bothered to change last night. At their own pace, everyone finally filed out of the room. She watched everyone leave before she herself moved to the door. In the hall, she sees Temari leaning against a wall waiting. As Ame comes within a few feet of her, Temari begins speaking.

"Kankurou got food poisoning yesterday. We had to stop many times on our way here." Without waiting for a response, she turned to leave.

"Apology accepted."

That stopped her. Temari turned back around glaring.

'There's that look again. Must be genetic. How else can one whole family share the same glare that makes me feel like an idiot.'

"Humph." Temari leaves the building.

Tact. Ame would definitely have to exercise more tact. Temari had clearly not wanted to openly express that she felt guilty about being late. Wanting to give Temari a few moments head start, she waited a few seconds the also exited.

The academy building was buzzing with chatter as she entered one of the classrooms. Everyone was talking excitedly, everyone that is except the three newest. They were standing in the corner, two of them muttering quietly to each other. As Ame walked in, everyone gave her a quick glance then returned to their conversations; everyone except a certain three. Temari and Kankurou casting occasional glances and Gaara staring openly.

Unable to stand it any longer, she stormed over to where the three stood and grabbed Kankurou, who happened to be closest, by his cat ear and pulled him to a secluded part of the room.

"Why is your family staring at me?" She annunciated each word in a sharp whisper.

"Think highly of yourself don't you?" He said glancing down at her with raised eyebrows.

"What does my personal opinion of myself have anything to do with you all looking at me?" She asked incredulously.

"What makes you think we were staring at _you_? There just happens to be a clock behind you."

Ame turned to see that there was indeed a clock over the door she had just entered. "Okay", Ame started slowly, loosing her confidence. "Well"

Before she can think up a good protest, Asuma calls out loudly. "Everyone take a seat, we're beginning."

Ame takes one more glance at Kankurou and the two behind him before hurry off to a seat as far away as she could manage. She sat down. Kankurou's explanation could have made sense, had the clock not been about four or five feet above her head. Meaning that for his story to be plausible, they all would have had to be looking higher up than they were.

"Right," Asuma starts. "Now as you know, you have been grouped in pairs for quite awhile now. Starting today, however, we will be going back to three to a team. And since we are expecting no more new arrivals for a good time, you will be with your groups for a few years to come. So without further ado"

"I'm here, sorry. My fortune cookie told me to find my destiny so………"

"LIAR!" It came as such a habit to Sakura and Naruto to cut off Kakashi's explanations whenever he was late.

"Er……well……let's get started."

Asuma looked exasperated, "we've already started, I was just about to divide them up."

"Oh, is that so? Then I'll just finish up." He scratched the back of his head walking to the front of the room. He takes a quick intake of the room, remembering something.

"For those of you who are wondering where Chouji is, he won't be joining you on your upcoming new teams. He has decided to become a full time teacher at the ninja academy, there he will only receive minor missions along with Iruka." He took a breath a surveyed everyone's reaction.

Everyone looked shocked. Chouji was one of the strongest among them, maybe not the fastest or the brightest, but definitely the bronze of the bunch. Shikamaru appeared absolutely floored.

Once Kakashi felt he had given them enough time for the words to sink in, he continued. "It is unfortunate, but it's his choice, not anyone else's. Now, there can be five even teams. They are: Team 1- Neji, Shikamaru, and Temari; Team 2- Kiba, Kankurou, and Ten Ten; Team 3- Sakura, Ino, and……" Kakashi had to choke back his laughter behind the black cloth that covered most of his face. "Sasuke; Team 4- Hinata, Naruto, and Lee; and finally Team 5……"

Ame's breath caught in her chest. By process of elimination she knew exactly the pair that Kakashi would be saying along with her name.

"Shino, Ame, and Gaara." He finished out looking up from the list he had been reading from. "Each of these teams has the potential to be great, that all depends though on your ability to work as a unit……"

Though Kakashi continued his speech, few were really listening.

(Student's thoughts. Can you guess who's thought it is?)

'Is this some kind of cruel joke? Sticking me with those two! Ino is worse than Naruto!'

'Aww……Sakura-chan is with Sasuke again. But at least _I'm_ not with him! Fuzzy eyebrows and Hinata, huh?'

'Sakura-san, my dreams of being with you have yet again been shattered……I wonder how someone other than Neji will use the byakugan.'

'As I remember from the Chuunin exam, she has excellent analyzing skills and he has an IQ of over 200……very interesting…'

'How troublesome, I got grouped with people who will expect me to work hard all the time……Ino seems happy.'

'squeal now Sasuke-kun will get to see my sharp skills and beauty first hand……he'll fall in love with me for sure…'

'I'm with him? He always seems to give up so easily though……first time I've been on a different team than Kankurou and Gaara though.'

'I fought him in the forest when Gaara was recovering, he's strong, but that doesn't really matter when you're one a team with him……'

'A free spirit and a monstrous raccoon? I suppose it's better than a boy and his silly puppy…'

'Yes! I'll definitely be the leader of this team! I am by the far the strongest out of my teammates.'

'Aw……I got put in such an oddball group. I'm envious of everyone else.'

'Naruto-kun I-I get to watch him up close now. Oh, A-Ame doesn't look to pleased.'

'Bugs……and……sand? That can't be a good combination.'

"………"

"Now that that has been said, I will tell you your assignment. Considering you all will be together for a very long time and the village will need you to work well with your team. We have placed aside enough ninjas to do your missions for a week so you guys can spend some……er…_quality_ time together. Your assignment: spend a week of survival training with your new teams."

Ame's head presently slammed on the desk. 'I can hear it now,' she thought to herself. 'Ame died today……what happened you ask? Oh, it was a terribly tragic bug/sand accident…'

"Meet me at the area you took the second test of the Chuunin exam at packed and ready to depart with your team in one hour."

Another chapter done! YES! The little "thoughts" scene midway though might have been a bit confusing for some. If you need me to tell you who was saying what tell me in your **_REVIEWS_** and I'll answer. Heh heh anyways, I should have the next one up in a few days. Sooo until then READ 'N' REVIEW!


	3. The Catch

…I am seriously considering whether or not to continue with this fic. Since no one ever reviews, I don't know whether it sucks or not. I don't even care if it's a bad review, any review would prove to boost my self-confidence for the rest of the fic, which is FAR from over. With that in mind, here we go!

**Chapter 3: The Catch**

Back in the dormitories, most of the girls hurried around the room, excitedly throwing articles of clothing and miscellaneous items into their respected bags.

"Which one?" Sakura raised a blue and a green dress in front of Ame.

"……" Ame appears to be in a daze as she packs.

"Hey, Ame?" Sakura turns to the next closest person. "Hinata, same question."

"Um…well…I…like both." As she finishes this statement, she quickly leaves the room to gather more supplies.

Temari looks on with disgust, "last I checked this was training, not a pageant."

Ino, who had been silent up to this moment, packing her own beauty supplies, suddenly chided in, "yeah, besides," she says, zipping up her pack, "you're wasting your time. Sasuke-kun already proclaimed his love for me."

It took Sakura a total of two seconds to jump over her bed and tackle Ino on the opposite side of the room.

As Ino and Sakura proceeded to scuffle on the floor, Temari leaves to report back to her team, shaking her head as she goes out the door.

"Oh, you're ready? Good." Ten Ten's voice can be heard from the hall. She sticks her head in the room. "You guys should really hurry, we have to be there in five minutes."

As Ten Ten leaves, Hinata returns to the room to gather the last of her supplies when she spots Ame still packing. And, some rather unusual equipment at that. "Umm…Ame…t-that's a shovel."

"Oh, so it is." Ame replied while still placing the small plastic shovel in her bag. Her thoughts seemed to be far, far away from the room at the moment.

"Right, w-well y-you'd better hurry, y-you'll be late if you d-don't." She quickly exits the room. Outside, she meets Shino and Gaara at the door.

"Is Ame inside?" Shino inquired trying to see around Hinata into the open door.

"Sh-she should be o-out in a m-minute." Hinata brushed past her former teammate to meet her new group.

Inside, Ame had finally succeeded in packing, though with what contents she wasn't too sure of. She swept her rather large pack onto her back and took one final intake of the room backing away from it towards the exit. She began waving dramatically, "good-bye room, good-bye comfort" she grasped the door handle and turned it, "good-bye glare less days goo-AHH!" She fell backwards onto her pack. The door to the girls' dormitories usually required some effort to open, but not when it was already left slightly ajar. Having thrown her weight against the door, Ame had found herself flying backward, falling on the floor, and greeting the faces that met her upturned face. "Oh, hi there. Ready to go?"

Shino shook his head as he offered a hand, 'you haven't changed since we were children', he thought. "Kakashi-sensei told us to go inform the Hokage that we are all departing. Apparently, she's required to be there."

From the look on their faces, Ame could see they clearly detested being treated like messenger boys. "Listen, it doesn't take three people to get one. You both go on ahead, I'll go."

Gaara spent no time disagreeing and promptly walked off. Shino, using a little more tact, at least pretended like he was giving it consideration before agreeing and following in Gaara's footsteps.

The Hokage wasn't a hard person to find. Ame found her in her office; face down on the desk with a bottle of some suspicious liquid grasped firmly in her hand. Ame reached out to rouse her, but before her hand could reach Tsunade's shoulder, her wrist was caught.

"What is it?" The Hokage said, annoyed by her nap interruption.

"Your conscious presence is required by Kakashi-sensei," she said with grimace, the hold the Hokage had on her wrist was brutal.

"Come on then," Tsunade replied, getting to her feet and releasing her grip. "Let's get this over with."

When Ame and Tsunade reached the group, Kakashi was nowhere in sight. Ame found Shino and joined him while Tsunade stayed in the back.

"Where is he?" Ame questioned peering around.

"In there", Shino replied bluntly, nodding toward the forest they were facing.

"In the assignment starting today," Kakashi's voice echoed from somewhere within the dense forest, "you will all be competing against each other in a little game of capture the flag. For those of you who are new to this, I'll explain. You capture other people's flags while protecting your own. Sounds easy, right? But, there's a catch." His voice came closer as he approached the edge of the forest. "Say hello to your new best friends." He emerged from the thick foliage with a cage in hand. Five beady-eyed squirrels with different colored cloths around their necks gazed up at them. "Meet your flags."

"What! Kakashi-sensei, you can't be serious!" Naruto exclaimed disbelievingly. "You can't really expect us to use these rodent as flags right? They move too much."

"But, if we capture them, it will be just like having a stationary flag." Lee pointed out.

"Ewww! I am _not _touching one of those things!" Ino squirmed as she shifted slightly backward.

"Don't worry, Ino. You can't." Kakashi's eye crinkled in an apparent smile.

"What!" Everyone said in unison.

"You can't. Touching your own squirrel will result in an immediate disqualification from the assignment." Kakashi chuckled at the bewildered looks of the students.

"But sensei, I don't understand. Why?" Sakura asked.

"In a normal mission, you may have to protect an actual person." He explained. "If this is the circumstance, you can't just pick up your charge and carry them with you. You have to track them."

"You said that we'd be competing, what do we get if we win?" A typical Sasuke question.

"During this assignment, we will be evaluating your team's skills." Kakashi answered. "This week will determine the level of the missions you will be given. The winning team will get more difficult missions, while the worst team may get to walk my dogs."

Tsunade impatiently walked to the front of the group. "Now I need you all to line up so I can place the seals on you."

"Do _what_?" Kankurou expressed everyone's puzzlement.

"Oh, heh heh." Kakashi laughed sheepishly, "I was getting to that. In addition to not touching the squirrels, to make it more challenging, the use of chakra has also been prohibited."

The silence that followed was just as thick as the forest in front of them. The students looked from Kakashi to the Hokage, praying for one of them to break face and shout "**April Fools**!"

"The Hokage has perfected a new technique which she will be putting on each of you in turn to prevent any chakra from being able to manifest outside of your skin. No chakra whatsoever will be able to escape your bodies."

Gaara was the first to break from the shock. "Absolutely no chakra can escape?"

Kakashi saw who was speaking and understood what he was really asking. "Yes Gaara. The Hokage's technique will make it impossible for energy to be released. Which also means that you and Naruto will not be able to revert to any form of demon. I believed I answered your true question with that."

He nodded.

Ame felt as though Kakashi had just spoken another language. She poked at Shino's shoulder, which just happened to be eye level with her. "What's going on?"

"Gaara will be able to sleep on this assignment." He answered shortly.

"And this is different then normal I take it?" She was given no response.

"Now, everyone line up."

Ten Ten was the first up. Tsunade had her extend her left arm as she proceeded to start a complicated series of hand seals. As she finished the last seal, she bit her index finder and slapped it down on inside of Ten Ten's bicep. After a second, small black lines began creeping their way down the inside of Ten Ten's forearm. It ceased movement at her wrist and she was left with black vein like lines imprinted on her arm, which Tsunade explained were the chakra channels in her arm.

When everyone had been properly sealed, Tsunade healed her still bleeding finger and walked back toward the village saying nothing more than a simple, "good luck."

Kakashi brought their attention back to himself. "In case of an emergency, and you quickly need to manifest your chakra, bite your middle finger and place your middle and ring finger on the inside of the wrist that has the lines on it. Then say, dispel. The lines will vanish in one minute and you will be able to use your chakra again. In that minute, everyone's markings will burn. Ame, Shino, if that happens, your first priority is to make sure Gaara is awake. Now, teams, come choose a squirrel."

Once each team had relayed to Kakashi which color they had, he untied the door to the squirrel's cage, but kept the door shut. "When this door opens, the assignment will begin. Everyone ready?"

No one said anything.

He released his hold forcing the door closed, "begin."

Woot! Yeah I know it took a long time to update, but…we kinda…lost the story. Yep…don't know where my notebook went. So anyways I'm having to rewrite everything….AGAIN, so please, just bare with me. Reviews would be greatly appreciated. And yes, after this little "assignment" the real plot line begins. So review and I'll write faster…don't and well we could be stuck on this chapter forever! And we DON'T want that now do we? Anyways, peace, love, and happiness!

(P.s.: I started typing this chapter before I lost the notebook and I just looked up at my beginning statement…hmmm…I think I'm getting redundant…sry!)


	4. Minutes into the Assignment

Disclaimer: Same as before

FYI: Everyone for nostalgic purposes is in the original outfits you saw them in for the first time. We've also decided to drop the formalities (aka: san, chan, sensei) it just makes it easier in case we forget. We may put it back in later, but we'll tell you before hand.

Let me just say….I LOVE OUR REVIEWERS! They give me the inspiration to keep writing. So without further ado, on we go!

Chapter 4: Minutes into the Assignment

Minutes into the assignment, Shikamaru's mind was already attempting to see the loopholes in their situation. 'What a troublesome task,' he thought to himself. He reviewed their only two rules: no chakra and no touching their own squirrel. 'Wait,' he thought suddenly. 'Kakashi said no touching your own squirrel, yet we are allowed to touch others' for the sake of capturing them. If we form an alliance with one of the other teams, we can switch squirrels and be able to touch our charges for the remainder of the week. The trouble is catching our flag without touching it to trade with the other team…'

Minutes into the assignment, Temari dreaded the prospect of having to chase a tree climbing rodent for seven days. 'There must be a way to stop it without having to touch it.' She thought back to how her brothers use to catch animals when they were younger. She could picture Gaara maniacally laughing over the lifeless carcass of some freshly "squeezed" beast. She shivered slightly, wrong brother. Kankurou on the other hand, had actually made a few crude traps in his history of hunting. Most failed miserably to catch anything, but one in particular she remembered almost working quite well. If she could just make a few adjustment…what she need was a net…

"Shikamaru, give me your shirt." Temari demanded suddenly.

Both Neji and Shikamaru stopped abruptly in their tracks.

"Come again?" Shikamaru asked baffled.

"I've thought up a plan to trap our squirrel, and I need something to act as a net. Thus, I need your shirt." Temari said placing her hands on her hips.

Ignoring the demand for his shirt, Shikamaru replied, "_if_ you can trap it, we will find another team and swap flags with them. That way we don't have to worry about constantly following this one all week long. Neji, which team is the closest to us?"

"Shino's team's squirrel darted off in the same direction as our at the beginning of the assignment, so they should be fairly close to us." Neji stated.

"Good, then you and Temari will go to them after we catch our squirrel and present them with our plan. Now, why do we need my shirt?"

"Because, your shirt is the most like a net." Temari said matter-of-factly.

"Why are you being so troublesome?" Shikamaru looked her over. "Your shirts made of the same material as mine."

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you suggesting that I take off my dress just to take off the shirt underneath it?"

"Yes," Shikamaru insisted stubbornly. "It's the same as me taking off my vest to take off my undershirt."

"No, _believe_ me, there are two things under this shirt that would most definitely make the scenarios _very_ different."

An awkward silence overtook the group. Even Neji had a slight crimson tinge to his cheeks after that outburst. "Just give her the shirt." He mumbled to Shikamaru.

Minutes into the assignment, Gaara was contemplating every way he could put and end to the miserable life of this pitiful creature…

"So, has anyone thought of a plan?"

…And he wasn't talking about the squirrel.

"We've already executed the bulk of our plan. Now we just have to find a way to incapacitate the movement of our flag." Shino shifted his gaze from Ame up to the tree they were standing under.

Their squirrel had stopped there minutes into the assignment.

"We've already started a plan?" Ame looked puzzled. "What have we done?"

"_I_ placed one bug on our flag and one on another when they were still in their cage. This way, we can track and opposing team's squirrel, giving us an advantage over the others. I would have placed one on each flag, but a large group of bugs coming from my direction may have been a bit suspicious." He said.

"Wait, how can you use your bugs?" Ame had gotten herself into an interrogational mode. "Didn't Kakashi say that that was unable to happen?"

"Ame," Shino reverted his gaze back to her. "How long have you known me?"

"'Bout six years."

"And in that time you've known me, have I ever needed to use chakra to deploy and communicate with my bugs?" He finished impatiently.

"No, I s'pose not." Ame thought about it for a second. "It almost seem like we're cheating though. I mean, you can still use your power without using chakra."

"No, it's not cheating." Shino replied. "Look at the abilities of each team. Almost all of them have at least one person capable of using regular techniques without using chakra."

Ame listed them off. "Kiba's team- well, I suppose he could sniff out all the squirrels, plus he has Akamaru; Naruto's team- they have Lee who has developed his own way of fighting without chakra; Neji's team- well, they're all smart; Sasuke's team-…?"

"Remember how I said '_almost_ all teams'," he was about to continue speaking when Gaara held up a hand for silence.

He points towards two figures waking toward them. He recognized his sister and the other to be her new teammate.

"Umm…Gaara?" Temari started timidly.

"What do you want?" He barked back.

Temari seemed to lose her nerve at that point and Neji continued for her. "We have a proposition for your team…"

After Neji relayed the plan to the team, Gaara immediately consented without waiting for the input of the rest of the team. Shino, it was decided would stay with Temari to capture their own squirrel, while Ame and Gaara were to follow Neji to where Shikamaru was waiting with their captured flag.

FLASHBACK

After Shikamaru finally consented to using his shirt, the team had been faced with yet another problem: what to use as a container for the squirrel? Temari's eyes were scanning the camp, looking for anything that would be able to hold a squirrel for long period of time. Her eyes fell upon one of her teammate's travel packs.

"Give me one of your packs." Temari made another demand looking straight at Shikamaru.

"No way, we used _my_ shirt." Shikamaru said indignantly.

Temari eyes shifted over to Neji who stood there, eyebrow slightly cocked as if daring her to ask him for his bag.

She sighed. "Fine," and loosened the drawstring of her bag and emptied out the contents onto the forest floor. "Now I need some sticks to line the inside of my bag with. That way, it will be heavy enough for the squirrel to not be able to knock it over and durable enough so it doesn't try to gnaw through the fabric."

"So exactly what kind of trap are we making?" Shikamaru asked.

"It's really quite simple." Temari said as her team helped her locate sticks to place inside the bag. "We'll set your shirt on the ground under my bag which will be face down with one side held up by a thicker stick than the ones we're using now to fill up my bag."

"Let me guess," Neji cut in. "We then place some sort of food under the upturned bag and tie some wire around the outside stick. Then wait for the squirrel to fall for the bait and pull the sting, therefore trapping the flag inside."

"Exactly."

"What if the squirrel hits the stick on the way in and the bag falls before the squirrel is underneath?" Shikamaru was doubtful.

"Then we'll set it up again." Temari stated matter-of-factly. "This creature isn't a genius, it will fall for the trap again."

"But what i-" Shikamaru began.

"Everything we do is going to take some risks." Temari snapped. "Or do you have a better idea in that big head of yours?"

He was silent.

"We need bait." Neji observed.

"Chouji gave me a bag of chips before we left, we can use that." Shikamaru suggested.

"Do squirrels even eat chi…"

"It's all we have." Neji interrupted. "It will do. Let's set this up before our charge decides to move."

"Right." The other two say in twin sulking tones.

END of FLASHBACK

In the sporadic light that made its way past the dense canopy of leaves, the trio walked in complete silence. Ame, who had already suffered enough silence for the day, quickened her pace to catch up with Neji. Ame was starting to speak when Neji beat her to it.

"You're lucky." Neji said as he saw her by his side.

"What makes you say that?" She saw no reason for her to be bestowed with the title 'lucky'.

"Since you moved from team to team when you were younger, you already had a relationship built up with almost anyone they put on your team." He looked truly sincere.

She shot a quick glance over her shoulder at the red head following in their footsteps. "Almost," she echoed.

Neji gave a crooked smile realizing who the 'almost' was referring to. "You know, he had gotten to the point where he was actually a decent guy. What did you do in such a short time to end that?"

"Nothing!" She exclaimed. "That's the thing. I've done nothing to him and he's been treating me like I spit in his cereal or something." Ame was pleasantly surprised. Even though she had been on Neji's team quite a few times, he had never initiated a conversation with her. "Things must not being going well at your camp."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well in the six years I've known you, this is the most you have ever spoken to me at one time. I always thought you thought me intellectually incompetent."

"Anything is better than those two." He said, his face falling back to its routine seriousness.

"O-oh." Ame said, letting the derision sink in.

He turned his head to look at her. "It's called a joke, Ame."

"Neji, jokes are meant to be funny." She said while shaking her head. "Besides, you laugh at jokes, and your still not even smiling."

"Is this better?" He said through a clenched tooth smile.

"Oh gosh! No! I take it back, never smile again!" She laughed, covering her eyes in pseudo fright.

"…I take it _that _was a joke?" He had dropped the toothy grin for a more characteristic smirk.

"Can't put much past you can I?" She said laying the sarcasm on heavy and lightly punching his shoulder.

"Spare me," they heard a voice say behind them.

"Excuse me?" Ame said, she had almost forgotten Gaara was behind them.

"Could you carry on you flirting some other time when I'm not within earshot?"

"Whatcha gonna do about it? Are you going to send you sand at me? Oh, wait, I forgot, you can't." She stuck out her tongue at him.

Her gesture was greeted with a murderous glare that send a shiver down Ame's spine. She turned back around and motioned Neji to walk a bit faster.

"You call _that_ nothing?" Neji said as they briskly walked away.

"I was provoked!" She shrugged.

They reached a clearing where they found Shikamaru sleeping against a tree with a travel pack balanced on his stomach.

"That's a great way to get it stolen." Neji looked at Shikamaru with distaste.

"What stolen?" Ame inquired.

"Our squirrel is in that pack." He answered.

"…What do you say we have a little fun?" Ame smiled mischievously, looking into her pack and grabbing a large felt tip pen she usually used for marking paths or trails.

Neji consented with his usual crooked smirk and Ame slowly crept over to where he lay sleeping.

She had just brought the tip of the pen within an inch of his face when she heard, "Shikamaru, we're here," in a raised voice.

Gaara had just joined them.

Shikamaru's eyes shot open, catching Ame quickly throw something back in her bag.

"Can I help you?" Shikamaru tilted an eyebrow.

"Yes, you could not fall asleep when you are suppose to be on watch." Neji stepped forward into Shikamaru's field of vision.

"HE FELL ASLEEP?" Temari exclaimed coming into the clearing with Shino. "How could you do that? Anyone could have come by and stolen that pack and it would have been your fault!"

"Yeah, yeah." Shikamaru yawned while standing and walking closer to the group.

"Don't you 'yeah yeah' me." Temari said, indignant.

"Yeah, yeah," Shikamaru teased.

Temari took a deep relaxing breath. "Here, hold this," she said through clenched teeth as she shoved something at Shikamaru.

It was just then that everyone noticed Temari had been holding the other team's squirrel with her bare hands.

"And what am I suppose to do with this?" Shikamaru asked dangling the unconscious squirrel from its tail.

"Oh, I have a great idea," Temari yelled exasperatedly, "why dont you shove it up your-"

"Finely toned ass?" Shikamaru suggested.

"I-I, well…completely missed what I was going for." Temari stuttered out, her face growing scarlet.

"Of course I did." Shikamaru replied quickly tossing the squirrel to Neji. He turned his back on them and walked back towards the bag, exaggerating his hip movement in the process. He then made a show of slowly bending down to picking up the bag. Shikamaru walked back towards them with a smug grin on his face. He proceeded to walk over to Ame. "Here Ame, I captured this just for _you_."

"Umm…thanks?" Ame received the pack and inched further toward Neji, who promptly stepped in front of her mouthing to Shikamaru, "what the hell?"

"Hey Shino," a low-pitched whisper said at his side. Shino slowly turned his head to Temari trying his hardest to shrink further into his coat. "Yes?" He asked nervously.

"Can I speak with you for a moment?" She had the audacity to run one finger up his sleeved arm.

(Ame distinctly heard Gaara mutter under his breath in plain disgust, "Oh God, is this all you people do?")

"You're speaking to me now," he said much more curtly than needed and jerking his arm away.

"No, silly! I mean…" she raised her eyebrows at Shikamaru, "_alone_."

"I'd really much rather stay with my team."

"Oh, come on," she quickly grabs the back of his coat in a vice-like grip and starts moving towards the denser tree area with him in toe.

Shino glances pleadingly at Ame mouthing, "help me."

"I can't," she mouthed back. "If I move, it may provoke him." She nods her head in Shikamaru's direction.

Knowing full well Gaara would not step in, Shino accepted his fate and moved on his own after Temari.

Once they were out of sight, Ame looked back over at Shikamaru. He was glaring after the recently departed pair with a look of pure anger on his face. It quickly dropped when he saw Ame staring at him. "I'm sorry about all that Ame." Shikamaru raised his hands in defeat. "Women make men do crazy things, that's why they're so troublesome." Shikamaru continued, though, it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself. "I'm going to get water for camp tonight." He strode to his bag and grabbed a large canteen from it. He briskly walked from the clearing the same way the two had just gone.

"Wait, Shikamaru!" Neji started then muttered to himself, "he knows the stream is in the other direction." Neji also followed in Shikamaru's footsteps.

"Don't leave me alone," Ame whispered barely audible, even to her own ears. 'Well, I'm still not completely alone.' She thought to herself. Gaara was still a few yards away. She turned to face him, noticing that he appeared to be concentrating very hard at an anthill on the forest floor. His jaw was clenched and his whole body stiffened as his eyes determinedly watched the hill.

Thinking he needed a distraction from whatever was occupying his thoughts, Ame decided to lighten the mood. "Well," she started, looking down at the pack in her hands, "I think we should name it, what do you think?" She raised her eyes back to Gaara who was already staring intently at her, stalking forward with slow steps. "You want to know what I think?" He said with a malicious smirk.

"Yeah," Ame replied wanting more than anything to back up further, but finding she was unable to. The tree at her back was proving that move to be impossible.

He stopped within a foot of her and placed both hands on the tree on either side of her face. Leaning in so that their eyes were level, perhaps to intensify his point, he whispered in a venomous voice, "don't talk to me anymore." He broke the eye contact and abruptly turned to move away.

Hotheaded as always and refusing to be scared by him, Ame yelled at his back, "that was an order, not a thought. I asked you what you were _thinking_."

He visibly stiffened as he heard her voice again and turned back, eyes dangerous blue slits. "I _think_," he hissed, "that the only reason I haven't killed you yet is because of our two countries' _precious_ alliance. Then again, just one death may go unnoticed. Especially in such a dangerous place."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Okay, she was officially creeped out.

"I mean, we are in the Forest of Death. As the name implies, this is a dangerous place and anything could be made to look like an accident."

"You're going to kill me?"

"There are worst things than death."

"What can you do without your sand? What, finally become creative?"

Since Gaara was not far from her to begin with, it only took him one long stride to reach her back at the tree and throw a punch. Seeing it coming, Ame quickly ducked under his extended arm and tackled him from the side. They both fell to the ground amidst the noise of all the cracking dead leaves. Ame instantly realized the totality of her mistake. Not only was Gaara bigger than her, he also was stronger, much stronger compliments of the dense gourd he carted around all the time. Within seconds, Gaara was pining Ame to the ground, hands clasped firmly around her neck. Air was immediately cut off and after a few moments of struggle, she felt the world swim dangerously in front of her as her lungs ached for oxygen. Suddenly, he gasped and loosened his hold on her neck reaching for a kunai embedded deep within his thigh. Ame wasted no time freeing herself from under him and gulping air back into her body. She hadn't been conscious of reaching for a kunai, let alone subconsciously stabbing him.

"What's going on here?" Shikamaru and Neji had returned from getting water. They had apparently gone around the clearing to the stream.

"It's nothing," Ame croakily through a still slightly crushed windpipe. "We were just sparring." Even to her the lie sounded fake.

The two looked suspiciously at both injured persons.

Temari and Shino also rushed into the clearing, though not quite as shocked about what they saw as Shikamaru and Neji. Temari went to her brother's side to assist him with the kunai still protruding from his leg. Shino kneeled to check on Ame. She was fine except for large red welts forming on her neck to which Shino poured some of their team's water supply on.

"Gaara," Temari said, hoping her courage didn't give out before she could tell him a few things.

"What?" He snapped immediately.

She lost it then and answered simply, "never mind."

After helping all that they could, Neji's team decided to head off, wishing them gook-luck as they departed. Neji gave Ame one more worried glance before he followed after Shikamaru. Temari also lagged behind looking from Ame to Gaara. Gaara caught her gaze and she quickly looked away. As she left, she thought to herself, 'sorry Ame, but it's either your neck or mine.'

------------------------------

Happy Holidays to everyone! I know kinda late, but I hope it was good for everyone. Anyways, how was this chapter? Tell me if you like or dislike it. Actually any comment is nice. So please review and I'll be working on Chapter 5!


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